April Fool's Day Contest: a Simple Computer Prank That Will Shut Down the Computer

Introduction: April Fool's Day Contest: a Simple Computer Prank That Will Shut Down the Computer

A computer prank that will shut down the intended computer in a set amount of time and display a message of your choice! Perfect to play on the curious-minded. Warning: Make sure that there aren't any important downloads or documents running at the time of activation. If there are, tell the victim how to cancel it (explained at the end of the instructable). NOTE: Will only work with Vista.NOTENOTE: I will NEVER clean up my desktop! :D

Step 1: Prank Settings

Right click on the desktop, select 'New' and click create shortcut.
In the window that pops up, type in:
shutdown.exe -s -t 120 -c "Your computer has committed suicide, have a nice day."

The number behind the -c is the time in seconds that the computer will shut down in, you can put in any amount here. If there isn't anything important going on, select a short time such as 5 seconds or so. If there IS something important, set it to a longer time such as 120 seconds or more so that you have time to deactivate it.
In between the quotation marks, write a message such as 'WARNING: VIRUS DETECTED: BEGIN SHUTDOWN IN 60 SECONDS'.

Step 2: Naming the Shortcut

In the window, enter the name for your prank shortcut. Remember that if you change your mind, you can always change it when it's on the desktop.

Step 3: Activating It

The icon will appear on the desktop. To activate it, simply double-click. The message will pop up and in the amount of time you set after that, the computer will automatically shut down.

Step 4: Deactivating

If you need to deactivate the script, go to 'Run' and type in shutdown -a.

Not sure cuz I have a Windows Vista computer, but the file could be hidden. Go to "Computer" and then "Organize" in the toolbar, "Folder and Search Options" and then the "View" tab, and finally "Show hidden files and Folders". Win 7 might not have this AT ALL, so you may want to search "How to show hidden files and folders on Windows 7". Then, right click and click the preferences tab, and un-check "Hidden" under "Attributes"Good luck!